Daily Domainer

Sustainable Is Good reports that Tate & Lyle, manufacturer of the chemical sweetener Splenda, along with its US based co-developer Johnson & Johnson, have bought up hundreds of chillingly expressive domain names, including SplendaPoison.com, SplendaKills.net, VictimsofSplenda.com, SplendaToxicity.com and SplendaAlert.com (full list below).

Do they know something that we consumers don't, or are they merely protecting their brand from competitors as well as watchdogs like Dr. Janet Hull, who provides interesting reading about the dangers of Splenda at SplendaExposed.com?

Sustainable is Good draws an interesting parallel to the tobacco lawsuits:

Many of the tobacco cases coming forward relied heavily on the emergence of internal documents that showed companies new their products were harmful. Suppose the Internet as we know it today was in existence in the late 1950s and 1960s and tobacco companies preemptively bought domain names like www.tobaccokills.com or www.tobaccovictims.com knowing what they knew about their products and anticipating a problem in the future.

An interesting point. Is there something we should know about Splenda?

Johnson & Johnson owns:

splendasucks.net, .org, .biz, .info
splendakills.net, .org, biz .info
splendatruth.com , .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendapoison.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
thedangersofsplenda.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
thefactsaboutsplenda.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
thesplendadangers.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
thesplendafacts.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
victimsofsplenda.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
thetruthaboutsplenda.net, .org, .biz, .info
thesplendatruth.com, .net, .org, ,biz, .info
splendatoxicity.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendatoxicitycenter.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendavictims.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendahealth.com
splendaandyourhealth.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendaandyourfamily.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz
splendamyths.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendaalert.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendafacts.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendasafety.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
truthaboutsplenda.info, .biz
splendasideeffects.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
aboutsplenda.com
allaboutsplenda.net
banonsplenda.com
bittertruthaboutsplenda.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
factsaboutsplenda.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
mythsaboutsplenda.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
officialsplendasite.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendadangers.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendadiabetes.com
splendaisnotsafe.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendaisnotsosweet.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info
splendasucralose.com
thetruthaboutsplendasafety.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info

Tate & Lyle owns:

sucralosepoison, com, .net, .info, .org, .biz, .us
sucralosekills.com, net, .info, .org, .biz, .us
sucralosesucks.com, .net, .info,.org, .biz, .us
sucraloseandyourhealth.com , .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us
sucralosesafety.com , .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us
sucralosefacts.com, .net, .org, biz, .info, .us
sucralosetruth.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us
truthaboutsucralose.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us
chlorosucralose.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us
sucraloseandyourhealth.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us

Here's the lesson that can be learned by any company considering embarking on a similar brand protection strategy. It makes sense to register a few obvious domains such as YourBrandSucks.com. You'll be in good company with CNNSucks.com (owned by CNN), WalmartSucks.com (owned by Walmart), HSBCSucks.com (owned by HSBC) and others.

But don't go overboard or you will attract the very attention you wanted to avoid. It's simply not possible to protect any and all potentially harmful domains. For example, someone who is determined to publish information about the (real or imagined) dangers of Splenda will always find a way to do so using domains such as SplendaRecovery.com, BanSplenda.com, PoisonousSplenda.com, SplendaLawsuit.com or even SplendaKilledMyDog.com, all of which are still available at the time of writing.

Finally, if you do register domains that elicit negative images about your brand, set up an unrelated shell company to hold these domains, or at least activate the whois privacy feature offered by many domain registrars.

(PS: To avoid any misunderstandings: Splenda didn't kill our dog. The Daily Domainer prefers Stevia, and owns a cat.)

[Seen at DomainTools Blog and Seth Godin's Blog]